This is a proposal for a nephrology training program whose goal is to develop physicians with the requisite skills to perform basic, translational and clinical research in nephrology. A unifying theme for the program is advance light microscopy imaging techniques which is utilized to study four broad areas;) ischemia induced renal epithelial injury, 2) autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, 3) metabolic bone disease and 4) epithelial cell polarity. This program seeks to increase the dynamic interactions of a highly motivated faculty that has created a highly interactive, intellectually excitng environment. This program now offers three pathways to train physician-scientist, 1) a nephrology training program with a two-year basic research requirement, 2) a PhD degree granting program offered through the Department of Medicine's ABIM sponsored Clinician Investigator program and 3) a Masters in Clinical Research degree program. The later program is designed to train fellows in the details of performing and completing clinical research projects. This program from its inception has utilized combined faculty of MDs and PhDs working on common research themes. The resulting environment has resulted in enhanced training for physician-scientists. MDs provide insights into disease-related processes while PhDs offer improved problem solving insights and rigourous evaluation of scientific data. This proposal seeks to build upon a record to training physician-scientists and to enhance the educational opportunities for nephrology trainees. We envision recruitment of MDs and MD/PhDs with an interest in renal disease pathogensis and molecular cell biology. Depending upon the training pathway selected, a minimum of three years will be spent in the program and up to seven years may be spent in the pursuit of a PhD degree along with Nephrology subspeciality training. This highly interactive group of physicians and PhDs share common interest in renal pathophysiology. The program is idealy suited to effectively recruit under represented minorities, since we have minority role models on the faculty. This grant will extend the working relationships of our faculty with the departments of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, Microbiology/Immunology and Anatomy/Cell Biology. By doing so, our faculty will increase their interactions with graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, medical students and medicine residents. We propose to train three postdoctoral fellows each fiscal year.
